Titfer Tat
by Lifeasanamazon
Summary: A post ep to 'Abu El Banat'... and a Christmas tree.


Author: Angie

Title: Titfer Tat

Characters: CJ/Toby

Rating: G

Summary: I prefer my gestures of appreciation to be… under-appreciated.

Disclaimer: Not mine at all.

Spoilers: Nope. This is a post-ep to 'Abu El Banat'.

Feedback: Always appreciated.

A/N: For Kate. I asked, and she said 'a romantic and fluffy follow up to the tree falling on Toby in 'Abu El Banat'. Otherwise known as Abu El Beret. She wanted something festive.

Thanks to Claire for her enthusiasm, and to Kat for the poke to keep going. Rhonda keeps me on the straight and narrow.

For all who are struggling to raise a smile.  
- - - - - - - - -

Titfer Tat  
- - - - - - - - -

"I… uh…"

CJ looked up expectantly at the man wedged in her doorway.

"You busy tonight?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, I know it's tonight already, but are you almost through?"

CJ glanced at the slim pile of papers on her desk. "Half an hour should do it."

"Okay," Toby shrugged into his coat and wrapped his scarf around his neck, "I'll see you in half an hour."

She stood and called after his retreating back, "Your place?"

"Yeah."

The snow had been falling steadily all day and had only just started to ease when CJ walked across the road. Her hair, chin and nose were tucked into a soft woolen scarf, and her beret pulled firmly down over her ears. She hated getting cold, but she wasn't going to drive, not when she was the bearer, and hopefully drinker, of a very expensive bottle of wine.

She ran up the steps to Toby's apartment building and pressed his buzzer.

"It's me. Hurry up, I'm freezing to death."

The latch clicked and she walked through the open door, stamping her feet on the mat to get rid of the last traces of snow. Along the hall, Toby's front door swung open and he stepped out to let her pass.

"You have green things in your beard, Toby." CJ pulled a pine needle from his chin and peered at it. "Have you been up to something you shouldn't have?" She smiled and patted his cheek, before pressing her gift into his hand. "Happy birthday, Pokey."

"It's not my birthday," Toby stared down at the label, "but I'm not giving this back."

"You don't have to give it back, and I know it's early, but how often do I get the chance to give you your birthday present and make sure that I get to share?" CJ wandered into the living room and gasped.

"My God, Toby! That's the biggest tree I've seen in anybody's house, let alone a man's who hates Christmas." She narrowed her eyes. "Christmas isn't in your repertoire, Toby. Your mother would turn in her grave, your sisters will be calling to check that you still go to Temple. Plus, I'll say it again, because it bears repeating… You hate Christmas."

"I don't hate Christmas."

CJ managed to drag her gaze from the monster in Toby's living room, its highest branches wedged sideways into his bookshelves, long enough to show her silent incredulity.

"I don't. I'm just a naturally reserved person. I don't deal well with ostentatious expressions of bonhomie. I prefer my gestures of appreciation to be… under-appreciated." Toby coughed and nudged her with an elbow. "If I open this now, will you help me, you know…"

"What, Toby?"

"Decorate it."

She turned him and pushed him towards the kitchen, "Bring me a glass and you'll see a master at work."

"How did you remember that I liked this stuff?" Toby's voice called out over the murmur of voices from the radio.

"It helps that I like it too." CJ bent to pick up a loose strand of tinsel that had wrapped around her foot. She took off her shoes and turned to accept a glass, sipping appreciatively. "Your good health."

She waited until Toby had taken a mouthful. "Now show me your balls."

It was worth every drop.

The tree was pretty. No, she'd have to say the tree was magnificent. CJ stood back and admired her handiwork.

"You need lights, Toby."

"I have lights, CJ." Toby began to rummage in the bag at the side of the sofa. "Here. You'd better do it, you can stretch better."

She took the bundle from him and reached up, carefully winding the fragile wire around as many branches as she could. "You just like to see me unbalanced," she muttered. "Here, take this."

She handed him the plug. "It's your turn to get down on your hands and knees, and it's my turn to enjoy the view."

Toby took the plug and smiled, bending slightly to attach it to the extension lead he'd already fitted.

"Spoilsport."

"Yes, I am. Unless it's sport for me. Having a tree dropped on my head today was only fun for you, CJ."

She dropped back into the sofa. "It looked pretty though." 

Toby lowered himself into the armchair and raised his glass. "It did."

They sat in companionable silence for a while, gradually working their way through the wine.

"You didn't drive, I hope?" Toby glanced across at her.

CJ blinked. "What? Oh… no, no, I walked."

He nodded. "I'll walk you home."

"Not yet though." CJ blushed at the panic she could hear in her voice.

He smiled again, "No, not yet."

CJ emptied her glass and placed it carefully down on the small table to the side of the sofa. She picked up the silver frame and considered the photograph inside. She could feel the heat of the wine in her cheeks and the slight buzz that it left in her head. She blinked hard and tried to focus.

"It's not easy to tell them apart." She brought the picture closer to her face and tilted it slightly towards the light from the tree.

Toby's voice by her ear made her jump.

"I know which is which."

She swiped at his head with her free hand and missed.

"This is potent stuff. " She shook her head lightly then leaned back to meet his eyes. "And so you should… you're their father - and I bet Andi helps you out." She sighed. "I'm not good with children."

Toby's laugh in her ear drew a corresponding smile.

"Well, I'm not." She shuddered at the memory.

"I don't think that you can count any of Doug 's offspring as normal children." Toby took the photograph from CJ and rubbed the glass softly with his sleeve. "He didn't swallow razor blades or trash the Oval Office, did he?"

She shook her head and turned to look at him.

"Then I'd say you did a better job than most. Don't knock yourself, CJ." Toby walked round to sit next to her on the couch and gave her elbow a gentle squeeze.

"Why'd you get the tree, Toby?" CJ let her hand drop to Toby's and rest there.

He turned his palm to hers, "I'm not a fan of shrubs."

CJ started to laugh…

"And I wanted to say I'm sorry. For your Dad… for you… and for what happened earlier."

"Toby…"

"No, CJ, I 'm not apologizing for my reasoning, I just… " He let go of her fingers and leaned forward, head in hands, "I could have been more sensitive, I could have said it better."

CJ let the silence hang.

"Yeah." She put a hand on his shoulder. "But we go back a long way, Toby, and you've never minced your words before. I can take it. I'm almost a fully grown woman."

Toby looked at her in mock horror. "You mean I'll have to get an even bigger tree next year?"

CJ spread her fingers and stared at the white of her skin against the dark wool of his sweater, feeling the comforting warmth through the layers, the time-tested sheer presence of him. She pushed him roughly.

"Open another bottle, nearly birthday boy - I want to toast your taking over the world, your lurch up the next rung of the ladder." She watched him heave himself upright and said, quietly, "Leo must be pleased with you, Toby. I'm pleased for you… pleased and proud." She could feel the treacherous tears start to form. "Let's have a drink."

"You'll fall, CJ, and you'll take me with you, and it'll hurt me more than you and then I won't invite you for Christmas."

CJ stopped suddenly in the snow and watched the large white flakes drop on Toby's head, the intricate patterns in his hair and beard lending him a gravity and age he'd yet to acquire, and a sense of the ridiculous that was always there, lurking. She knew him so well, but he still managed to surprise her.

"You're inviting me for Christmas?" She pulled at his hand.

"Well, I _was_… but I changed my mind when you put snow down my neck…" Toby reached with his free hand and scraped at the wet mass melting quickly beneath his scarf.

"You're inviting me for Christmas?" Two bottles of wine and now she couldn't stop the amazement in her voice, nor the lump in her throat. She pulled harder and he half slid and half staggered right up to her.

"You're turning into a snowman, Toby. You've got coal for eyes and two red cheeks…"

"CJ!" Toby slapped at the hands that now gripped his lapels.

CJ laughed. "You need a hat - all snowmen must have a hat, else how would we know they were snowmen." She pulled off her beret and dragged it over Toby's head. "Apart from the carrot nose, of course."

CJ looked at the man standing in front of her in the snow; the friend who had given her more tonight than she'd had for many, many Christmases - a very tall tree and a little consideration.

She wiped a snowflake off his nose.

"Hatty Birthday, Toby. And Beret Christmas."

End


End file.
